CV

Education

Doctor of Philosophy in Biomedical Engineering
Duke University September 2021

Dissertation: Connecting morphology to physiology in the mouse tactile sensory system
Advisor: Fan Wang, PhD

Doctor of Medicine
Duke University September 2021

Elective clinical rotations include Neuroradiology, Neurology, Neuropathology, and Neuro-oncology.

Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering
Case Western Reserve University May 2013

Thesis: A Device Compatible with Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Assessing Brain Activity During a Finger Force Tracking Motor Task.
Advisor: Jayme Knutson, PhD

BSE in Biomedical Engineering, concentration in bioelectricity
Case Western Reserve University May 2012

Summa Cum Laude.
Case Alumni Association Award for highest GPA in engineering.
BME Award for Best Teaching Assistant.
BME Award for Best Senior Project.
Student Leadership Award for Outstanding Supplemental Instructor.

Research and Clinical Interests

Research interests include touch, pain, electrophysiology methods, developing open-source tools

Clinical interests include Movement Disorders, Neurocritical Care, and Neuromuscular Disorders.

Research Experience

Postdoctoral Research: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Postdoctoral Associate: 09/21 - present

Ph.D. Graduate Research: Duke University, Department of Neurobiology.
Graduate Research Assistant 09/14 – present

  • Developed expertise in extracellular and juxtacellular electrophysiology in awake behaving animals
  • Designed hardware and software interfaces for data acquisition, including using FPGAs, cameras, and wireless data transfer
  • Designed and used two photon, widefield, intrinsic, confocal, and lightsheet microscopes
  • Trained to perform single cell, in vivo cell-filling, immunohistochemistry, and tissue clearing

M.S. Graduate Research: Case Western Reserve University, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
Graduate Research Assistant: 01/11- 07/12

  • Measured the effects of Contralaterally-Controlled Functional Electrical Stimulation using fMRI
  • Designed MRI-compatible devices to measure hand movements and forces
  • Assisted in completion of IRB protocols for human subject experiments

Undergraduate Research: Case Western Reserve University, Department of Biomedical Engineering.
Graduate Research Assistant: 11/09 – 03/11

  • Measured the effect of laryngeal elevation on the ability of the vocal folds to close after transtracheal stimulation 
  • Recorded and analyzed data generated from canine experiments, as well as monitored the animals.

Undergraduate Research: Case Western Reserve University, Department of Neurological Surgery.
Graduate Research Assistant: 09/08 – 07/12

  • Investigated methods to measure the outcomes of the light-activated cancer therapy Pc4 Photodynamic Therapy.
  • Developed Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy and Dynamic Contrast Enhanced-Magnetic Resonance Imaging protocols and carried out scans
  • Assisted in animal care during studies and performed injections and anesthesia

Teaching Experience

First Year Design Mentor: Duke University Fall 2018

Teaching Assistant: Duke University: Spring – Fall 2017

  • Course Title: Devices for People with Disabilities
  • Mentored teams for the Biomedical Engineering senior design class
  • Graded laboratory notebooks each week

Supplemental Instructor: Case Western Reserve University Summer 2009 – Spring 2012

  • Held optional review sessions up to three times a week and created worksheets for each
  • Conducted additional exam reviews and created practice exams
  • Worked closely with course professors and participated in team meetings
  • Review session sizes ranged from 20-150 students depending on course size 
  • Experience with the following courses:
    • ENGR 145 - Chemistry of Materials 6 Semesters
    • BIOL 214 - Genes and Evolution 3 Semesters
    • PHYS 115/116 – Physics (Algebra-Based) 1 Semester
    • CHEM 223/224 – Organic Chemistry 1 Semester
    • EBME 201 - Biophysics 1 – Physiology 1 Semester

Teaching Assistant:  Case Western Reserve University. Fall 2011

  • Served as team leader of four teaching assistants in 135 student engineering physiology course
  • Assisted in designing and grading homeworks, quizzes and exams
  • Held weekly recitation sections with ~70 student attendance.

Technical Skills

Programming Languages:

  • Julia (Excellent)
  • Python (Good)
  • C++ (Good)
  • MATLAB (Good)
  • Javascript (Moderate)
  • C (In & Out)
  • Verilog (In & Out)

Other Software:

  • Windows, Mac OSX, Linux
  • CMake
  • GUI Design with Qt and GTK
  • Deep Learning with PyTorch and Tensorflow
  • Scientific camera acquisition (Basler)
  • FFMPEG for real-time compression and decoding of large video datasets
  • Finite Element Analysis with MOOSE and FEBio

Neuroscience techniques:

  • Extracellular recording with single and multi-electrodes
  • Histological processing and immunohistochemistry
  • Viral injection, Optic fiber implantation
  • Two-photon, widefield and intrinsic-signal imaging in-vivo
  • Juxtacellular labeling in-vivo
  • Tissue clearing

Publications

Thompson, P. M., Takatoh, J., Wang, F. Encoding of tactile stimuli by club and lanceolate endings in the mouse whisker system. (In Preparation)

Jun Takatoh, Vincent Prevosto, P.M. Thompson, Jinghao Lu, Leeyup Chung, Andrew Harrahill, Shun Li, Shengli Zhao, Zhigang He, David Golomb, David Kleinfeld, and Fan Wang. The whisking oscillator circuit. Nature 1–9 (2022). Pubmed

Takatoh, J., Park, J.H., Lu, J., Li, S., Thompson, P.M., Han, B.-X., Zhao, S., Kleinfeld, D., Friedman, B., Wang, F., 2021. Constructing an adult orofacial premotor atlas in Allen mouse CCF. eLife 10, e67291. Pubmed

Jonathan Wallace, Martha O Wang, Paul Thompson, Mallory Busso, Vaijayantee Belle, Nicole Mammoser, Kyobum Kim, John P Fisher, Ali Siblani, Yueshuo Xu, Jean F Welter, Donald P Lennon, Jiayang Sun, Arnold I Caplan, David Dean. Validating continuous digital light processing (cDLP) additive manufacturing accuracy and tissue engineering utility of a dye-initiator package. Biofabrication, 6(1): 015003. 2014. Pubmed

Aaron J Hadley, Paul Thompson, Ilya Kolb, Elizabeth C Hahn, Dustin J Tyler. Targeted transtracheal stimulation for vocal fold closure. Dysphagia, 29(3): 346-354. 2014. Pubmed

Conference Presentations

Peer-Reviewed Conference Proceedings Papers

Dustin J. Tyler, Ilya Kolb, Paul Thompson, Aaron Hadley. “Electrical Stimulation for the Management of Aspiration during Swallowing.” Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2012;1:1-6. (Invited Paper).

Vaijayantee Belle, Ali Anka, Nathan Cross, Paul Thompson, Eric Mott, Rahul Sharma, Kayla Gray, Ruozhen Zhang, Joyce Xu, Jiayang Sun, Chris A. Flask, Nancy L. Oleinick, David Dean. “Dynamic Contrast Enhanced-Magnetic Resonance Imaging (DCE-MRI) of Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) Outcome and Associated Changes in the Blood-Brain Barrier Following Pc 4-PDT of Glioma in an Athymic Nude Rat Model.” SPIE Photonics West 2011, San Francisco, CA 2011.

Ali Anka, Paul Thompson, Eric Mott, Rahul Sharma, Ruozhen Zhang, Nathan Cross, Jiayang Sun, Chris A. Flask, Nancy L. Oleinick, David Dean.  “Dynamic Contrast Enhancement-Magnetic Resonance Imaging (DCE-MRI) for the Assessment of Phthalocyanine 4 Photodynamic Therapy of Glioma: A U87-derived Tumor Model in the Athymic Nude Rat.”  SPIE Photonics West 2010. San Francisco, CA 2010. 

Abstracts (Poster and Podium Presentations)

Paul Thompson, Mikhail Lebedev, Miguel. A. L. Nicolelis. A neuroscience toolbox for the wired and wireless acquisition and real-time processing of extracellular electrophysiological recordings. Society for Neuroscience. 2017. (Poster)

Paul Thompson, Mikhail Lebedev, Miguel A. L. Nicolelis. Cortical Representations of Bimanual Movements: Patterns of Interference. Society for Neuroscience 2015. (Poster)